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A public ceremony was held in June to celebrate the opening of Dairy Queen's 100th store in Thailand. This store is the first outside the U.S. to include the new international design featuring a new logo, altered color scheme, and new "eatertainment" design. Headed by William Heinecke, the Minor Food Group is the Dairy Queen licensee for Thailand, and plans to open 25 more locations during the next year. "Much of the extraordinary growth is due to the unique characteristics of the Dairy Queen concept from America. Young people and old enjoy the taste and wide variety of the premium soft-serve ice cream products, led by the highly popular Blizzard," says Heinecke. The Blizzard Flavor Treat features soft serve ice cream blended with a choice of candy, cookie and fruit flavors. It is Dairy Queen's most successful product.

Thailand has the largest number of Dairy Queen outlets in any country outside the United States and Canada. The rapid growth has been fueled by the ability of Minor Food Group to take positive advantage of the unique market conditions that existed during the Asian financial crisis. Placement in shopping malls and customer-friendly pricing has been a big factor in the chain's success, says Sriprapha Sutthawanit, General Manager of Minor Food Group.

Dairy Queen is currently represented in China, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and Guam, and is looking to develop other markets throughout Asia by establishing relationships with companies already operating multi-unit retail foodservice concepts. "We work closely with our licensees providing a broad range of strategic, marketing, and operational support while encouraging an aggressive development schedule," says Ed Watson, Dairy Queen executive vice president and COO. <